[cema]

Diversity is helpful, not necessarily essential.

Not just diversity of gender (or, say, race). Also diversity of life experiences, ideologies, etc. One of the best things about having studied in an American university for me was the number of international students actively participating in school life, together with and just like American students. Such a contrast with a Soviet university where I had studied before that and where all international students were isolated in their own academic groups, we had almost no interaction with them.

[hammerdr]

We may disagree on the degree to the 'helpfulness' of diversity; essential may have been too strong of a word. I think that diversity is 'essential' in that we cannot solve problems as well as we could without it.

I agree with you that diversity of experience is the key ingredient of diversity. Superficial diversity can actually be harmful. However, I would argue that men and women have the most disparate experiences between the most common classifications of people.